Do Hormones Affect Your Ability to Lose Weight?

When it comes to losing weight, conventional wisdom emphasizes the (now debunked) calories in / calories out approach. In other words, the thinking used to go, as long as you burn off more calories than you take in, you should be trim and healthy in no time. 

However, that approach ignores the fact that calories are attached to foods with significantly different chemical structures and impacts on your body. It also ignores that your body may not be equipped to burn off calories because your hormones are out of balance.

At Low Testosterone & Weight Loss Center in Allen, Texas, our health experts take a holistic, whole-body approach to weight loss. That includes examining your hormones and correcting imbalances with hormone replacement therapy (TRT). 

Hormones affect everything

As a man, you may know that the androgen testosterone (T), was the hormone responsible for puberty. Testosterone grew your muscles and your facial hair and lowered your voice. When you had plenty of T, you had plenty of energy and high libido, too.

However, hormones also affect how well you sleep. When your T drops as you age, you may find it difficult to sleep through the night, which may increase your craving for pound-adding carbohydrates.

Low T causes you to gain more fat and lose muscle mass, too. Fatty tissue produces estrogen, which throws off your T balance even more. Muscle mass boosts your metabolism, but if you don’t have T, you lose that muscle mass, and your metabolism slows down.

Low T can cause weight gain and diabetes

When you were younger, your liver produced the sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), which transported your T and other hormones throughout your bloodstream. Also, at a younger age, your testes produced so much T that SHBG couldn’t bind it all up. This “free” T was easier for your tissues to absorb.

With plenty of free T circulating, your muscles stayed strong, your hair remained thick, and erections were easy, strong, and long-lasting. But as you produce less T, it can’t replenish those muscles and other organs that need it.

Without free T and the boost it gives your system, you slow down. Men with low T — a condition known medically as hypogonadism — don’t just gain weight. They slow down physically and mentally and are prone to developing type 2 diabetes.

Replenish your T to jumpstart weight loss

If your T is low, all the conventional diet and exercise advice can fail. With low free T, your muscles can’t build after a weight-lifting session. Your metabolism can’t speed up enough to burn fat, either.

However, when you replace your missing T, that entire sequence reverses. Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) provides your muscles with the kind of circulating free T they need to get stronger and bigger. More muscle mass speeds up your metabolism. A faster metabolism burns off fat.

Of course, TRT alone isn’t enough to help you achieve your ideal physique and optimal health. You still need to focus on a whole-foods diet and plenty of exercise, water, and sunlight. 

Call us today at 469-912-2113 to find out if your hormones are why you can’t lose weight. You can also use our online form to schedule an appointment for a hormone evaluation and TRT.